ESS1 (9-11) - 2

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Students demonstrate an understanding of processes and change over time within earth systems by …

2a using given data (diagrams, charts, narratives, etc.) and advances in technology to explain how scientific knowledge regarding plate tectonics has changed over time.


What do these GSEs mean? What subtopics do students need to address to understand these GSEs?
Through geologic time, Plate Tectonics has changed the patterns of land, sea, and mountains of the Earth's surface. Students will understand through history, changes in events, concepts and theories how Plate Tectonics has become a model of the Earth processes.

SUBTOPICS in order to understand plate movement

  • Earth's Structure
  • Compositional make-up
  • The Rock Cycle
    • Igneous
    • Metamorphic
    • Sedimentary
  • (8) Continental plates
    • North American,South American, Nazca, Eurasian, Pacific, African, Antartic, Indian-Austrailian
  • Plate Boundaries
    • Divergent-- spreading center—mid-ocean ridges-convection—seafloor spreading
    • Convergent--subduction zone, trenches, island arcs, volcanoes, earthquakes, mountains Theories of Plate Movement--2-(convection, Gravity)
    • Transform--earthquakes
  • Theories of Plate Movement--convection, gravity

Since the Earth's structure and movement is addressed in
ESS1 (5-6) - 1, s
ubopics listed above should be re-introduced to students. Once students become refreshed with the concepts listed above, they will be able to connect their prior knowledge of the Earth and its processes to the historical and modern theories of plate movement through the development of technological advances in plate movement over time. Students will also gain an understanding how theories can change over time due to increasing evidence or lack there of.


HISTORY OF PLATE TECTONICS
  • Geologic time scale
  • 1855—1st evidence of underwater mountains
  • 1914-1918—echo sounding devices—measured ocean depth
  • Continental Drift Theory (Alfred Wegner--1912)
    • Pangaea 200 MYA
    • Laurasia
    • Gondwanaland
    • Fossil evidence and glaciation
  • 1962--R. Dietz & Harry Hess
    • Seafloor Spreading hypothesis
      • Mid-Ocean Ridge
      • Deep Sea Trenches
      • Island Arcs
      • Geomagnetic Patterns
      • Fault Patterns
  • 1950’s-- Plate Tectonic Theory
    • Evidence
      • Ocean Floor Mapping
      • Ocean floor ruggedness and youth
      • Magnetic Striping and polar reversals
      • Evidence of past magnetic field reversals
      • Seafloor spreading back into focus/oceanic crust recycling
      • Documentation of earthquake and volcanic activity concentrated areas
  • Technological Advances for studying plate tectonics

What ideas to students need to understand before they can address the topics described above?

  • 1.Students need to understand that scientific theories often are changed as new discoveries/technologies become advanced.
  • 2.The earth as we know it today has evolved over many billions of years and continues to change.
  • 3.Definitions

What misconceptions are students likely to have about these topics?

  • Continental drift and plate tectonics--they are not the same thing.
    • Edges of plates vs. edges of continents
  • The mantle is made of fluid and that the lithosphere plates float on this fluid
  • Rotation of earth causes continents to move
  • Continents floats on oceans
  • Earthquakes form when plates crash
  • What phenomena and representations help students understand these topics?

What activities or activity sequences can be used to address these GSEs?


Concept maps
Jigsaw puzzles
Geologic Time Maps